Premier League club Southampton are prepared to name Ronald Koeman as Manager according to multiple reports in the British press. He would replace Mauricio Pochettino who left the club last month to take the same position at Tottenham Hotspur.
Koeman, the former great Dutch player who has had a stellar management career at clubs such as Ajax, Benfica and PSV. Koeman managed Feyenoord to a second place finish in the Dutch League last season.
As a player Koeman is best remembered for scoring the winning goal for Barcelona against Sampdoria to lift its first European Cup in 1992 at Wembley. He had previously won the same trophy with PSV in 1988.
At the international level, Koeman was an integral part of the Euro 88 title winning Dutch side and featured in the 1990 World Cup, Euro 92 and World Cup 1994 tournaments.
As a Manager, Koeman has also been successful with the exception of an ill-fated stint at Valencia during the 2007-08 season. The club finished bottom of their Champions League group and fell from 4th in the league the previous season to 15th, sitting just two points outside the relegation zone. The club did win the Spanish Cup but the league and European failures were too much for the board to accept. After the season, Koeman was sacked.
Southampton is facing a potential mass exodus of players this summer. Rickie Lambert has already signed for Liverpool while fellow England Internationals Luke Shaw and Adam Lallana are highly sought after commodities among the top English clubs. This comes in addition to the possibility that some of the Saints lower-profile young players could be tempted by a potential raid from Pochettino’s Spurs side. In addition Dejan Lovren at the World Cup with Croatia will almost certainly attract interest from other clubs.
Koeman could be named the new Saints boss as early as Monday.
